Asymptomatic patients and asymptomatic phases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): a population-based surveillance study

• 作者: Jian Liu Jianping Weng Liangming Zhang Liangye Sun Mingfeng Han Ping Ling Sihui Luo Tengchuan Jin Xueying Zheng Yong Sun Yu Ding Zhirong Liu
• 来源期刊: 国家科学评论（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（10）
• 所属期刊栏目: RESEARCH ARTICLES
• 页码范围: 1527-1539
• 页数: 13页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa141

摘要

In this population-based study,we identified 307 confirmed COVID-19 cases from massive surveillance,including 129 551 individuals screened at fever clinics or returning from Hubei and 3710 close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients.Among them,17 patients were asymptomatic at initial clinical assessment.These asymptomatic patients on admission accounted for a small proportion of all patients (5.54％) with relatively weak transmissibility,and the detection rate was 0.35 per 100 close contacts.Moreover,the dynamics of symptoms of the 307 patients showed that the interval from symptom remission to the final negativity of viral nucleic acid was 5.0 days (interquartile range 2.0 to 11.0 days),with 14 patients (4.56％)having re-detectable viral RNA after discharge.Overall,our findings suggested asymptomatic carriers and presymptomatic patients only accounted for a small proportion of COVID-19 patients.Also,the asymptomatic phase during recovery from COVID-19 implied that negativity in viral RNA is necessary as a de-isolation criterion and follow-up is recommended.